Archiving invoices in SMBs: 7-year retention without the hassle

A 7-year retention obligation sounds straightforward, but the devil is in the details: original file formats, inboxes that aren't archives, and a year-end close you don't yet treat as an archiving moment. A practical guide — no panic required.

You've been working with the same supplier for years. Invoices arrive, you pay on time, and the PDF ends up in a folder — or gets automatically imported by your accounting package. Done. But what actually happens when the Tax Authority asks for invoice 2024-0381 three years from now? Or when a dispute with a supplier suddenly means you need the original invoice?

For most SMB owners, "keeping invoices" is a topic that only comes up when something goes wrong. Time for a calm explanation — no panic, just a practical approach.

What does the law actually say?

The basics are simple: the statutory retention period in the Netherlands is 7 years for most administrative records. For real estate it's 10 years (due to the VAT revision period). This applies to:

• Sales invoices (those you have sent)
• Purchase invoices (those you have received)
• General ledger, accounts receivable and accounts payable records
• Bank statements and cash books
• Stock records

The clock starts at the end of the financial year in which the invoice falls. An invoice from March 2024 can therefore be disposed of on 1 January 2032. In practice, many business owners simply go by "8 years back" to stay on the safe side.

Original format: the detail most people miss

This is where it gets interesting. The Tax Authority requires you to keep invoices in the original format in which they were received. Receive a PDF by email? Then you keep the PDF — not a printed version. Receive a paper invoice? You may scan it, provided the scan is a faithful reproduction and you can demonstrate the entire process.

Many accounting packages store their own version or a converted version. That isn't always enough. Check whether the original file (the PDF as it arrived) is also stored somewhere — for example in the mailbox, or in a dedicated archive folder.

The three most common mistakes in SMBs

1. Everything in one inbox

"The invoices are in my email." That works — until an employee leaves, the mailbox gets cleaned up, or Microsoft 365 has a two-year retention policy in place. An inbox is not an archive. Don't treat it like one.

2. The accounting package as the sole source

What if you switch to a different package in three years' time? Or if your supplier goes out of business? A scheduled export, saved to a location you own, prevents unpleasant surprises. Do this at least annually after closing the financial year.

3. No distinction between "done" and "in progress"

Open invoices, active files, draft contracts — these often get mixed up with completed documents. During an audit you want to be able to point clearly to: this is the closed archive for financial year X.

A practical archive structure

You don't need to buy a document management system for this. A folder structure on a secure cloud location (SharePoint, Google Drive, or a NAS with a backup) is sufficient for most SMBs. For example:

• /Administration/2024/Purchases/ — all received invoices as PDFs
• /Administration/2024/Sales/ — all sent invoices as PDFs
• /Administration/2024/Bank/ — statements per quarter
• /Administration/2024/Year-end/ — tax returns, annual accounts, exports from accounting package

Consistent file naming makes a huge difference: 2024-03-15_SupplierX_invoice-1234.pdf is far easier to find than scan002.pdf.

What about loose PDF attachments?

Sometimes an invoice comes with accompanying documents: a specification, a delivery note, a contract. These should be kept together. A handy approach: merge them into a single PDF per invoice so you always have the complete file. Our PDF merge tool does this without requiring you to upload files to some obscure foreign service — useful when you're dealing with financial documents.

IBAN changes: keep the correspondence

An often-overlooked point: when a supplier provides a new IBAN, keep the written confirmation (email or letter) with the invoice file. It's not just useful for your records — it's also evidence if a dispute about a payment arises later. To verify whether a new IBAN is valid in the first place, you can use our IBAN check before making a payment.

The year-end close: one fixed moment for archiving

The practical tip that pays off the most: make the year-end close a fixed archiving moment. At the end of February or beginning of March, once your tax return is filed, do the following:

1. Export all invoices from the past year from your accounting package as PDFs
2. Save them in your archive structure
3. Add a copy of the annual accounts and tax returns
4. Back up the entire year to a second location
5. Set the folder to read-only for most employees

That year is then taken care of. If anything is ever requested, you'll know exactly where to find it.

What about digital security?

An archive containing 7 years of invoices also holds 7 years of business data, supplier and customer IBAN numbers, and financial records. Not every employee needs access to that. Restrict access to those who genuinely need it — typically the owner, the accountant, and possibly an office manager.

Not sure whether access to your administration is properly set up? An access check maps out who can reach what — and where that no longer makes sense.